The hangman’s rope ignited and burned to a charred thread, and the statue slid down the side of the chasm wall.
Pushing her snowy hair from her eyes, Sapphira looked through the circular opening at the top of the fiery cylinder. Several feet above her head, Gabriel clung to the lip of the chasm, digging his shoes into the slope.
Sapphira cupped a hand around the side of her mouth. “Gabriel! Jump! It’s your only chance!” As hot wind from the whipping fire snatched her words into the cyclone, the cylinder’s opening squeezed shut. With a loud crack, the statue plunged downward.
Suddenly, Gabriel burst through the wall of fire. He caught the horse’s head and swung up to its back in one motion. Now riding in front of the soldier, he took Sapphira’s hand. “Are we in a portal?”
Sapphira squeezed his fingers. “I think so!”
“Did you make all this fire?”
“No! I have no idea who did it!”
Dry air and streaming flames flowed upward all around. Jasmine locked an arm around Sapphira’s waist, and Gabriel slapped the thigh of the sculptured rider behind him. “Ready to hunt for our father?”
As Jasmine held her dress down with her free hand, a trembling smile broke through, and her voice cracked. “You humans . . . have a strange way . . . of beginning a new adventure.”
Gabriel grinned. “Hang on tight, Sister. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
The downward plunge slowed to a gentle drift. A rectangular hole opened in the fiery wall, revealing a screen similar to the museum room’s viewing port. It displayed Merlin standing at the edge of a precipice with his hand wrapped around the neck of a huge raven. At the bottom of the chasm, a river of magma churned, bright orange and steaming. Merlin struck the bird’s head with a glowing sword, and its feathers burst into flames. He released the raven’s neck, and it immediately attacked him, pecking and clawing his head. Tongues of fire lashed his shoulders and ignited his clothes. Merlin transformed into a glittering lion, snatched the raven in his great jaws, and dangled it over the chasm. With a mighty shake, he cast the raven downward, and it morphed into Morgan’s dark silhouette. Screaming and flailing her arms, she plunged into the boiling river of fire. The splash ignited a towering blaze, and Morgan’s face melted into the stream.
Merlin gazed down at the river and whispered, “Checkmate.” Then, with a turn and a bow of his sparkling lion head, he smiled. “Sapphira Adi, your tormentor is no more. May you live the rest of your years in peace and joy. I will see you again in Paradise.”
Sapphira sniffed and waved. “Good-bye, Merlin. Thank you . . . Thank you for everything.”
Merlin faded away. The screen disappeared, and the hole in the fiery wall closed. The cyclone’s spin suddenly accelerated, whipping the hot air into a frenzy. Sharp pain dug into Sapphira’s arm. A set of claws dragged across her skin and scratched down the side of the statue. A pair of wide red eyes flashed in the center of a scaly brow as a dragon’s face slowly shrank into the darkness below.
Sapphira bent over and grasped a foreleg. “Roxil! Hang on!”
Wings sprouted from Roxil’s back and spread out toward the spinning fire. When the tips brushed against the flames, she pulled her wings tightly against her body.
Sapphira looked upward. “Jehovah-Yasha!” She grunted as she strained against Roxil’s growing weight. “Help me! I can’t hang on much longer!”
The wall of fire contracted and spilled over them. The statue burned away, and all three plunged into a black void. Sapphira’s body erupted in flames. Gabriel, falling next to her, also burst into a fiery column.
The surrounding darkness crumbled and blew away. Sapphira pressed her feet down on a cool stone floor. The flames crackled and shrank into dwindling sparks that scattered around the familiar museum chamber. Standing at her side in his winged form, Gabriel batted away the remaining sparks as if they were pesky gnats. The portal column swirled in front of them, white and shining.
Sapphira clasped her hands together. “We made it! Thank God!”
Gabriel smiled and flicked his thumb toward the rear. “Our hitchhiker made it, too!”
Sapphira spun around. Sitting on its haunches, a tawny dragon stretched its wings and shook off a coat of ashes. It wagged its head back and forth and groaned. “I hope that was just the longest nightmare in history!”
Sapphira laughed. “Wake up, sleepy dragon! It’s time to search for